1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microscope apparatus and control technique for the same, and for example to a microscope apparatus comprising a specimen retention member holder.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, when observing a specimen such as a cell, a fluorescent observation by using a microscope is used. In such a case, usually performed are a cultivation of a cell in a Petri dish and an observation of a specific region of the cell. Also performed is a cultivation of cells in a plurality of wells of a well plate followed by examining whether or not a cell is glowing after a certain experiment, which is also observed by employing the fluorescent observation.
In a common microscopic observation, the microscopy observer (noted simply as “observer” hereinafter) first observes as to where a desired specimen exists by using an object lens of a low magnification ratio, followed by observing an enlarged image of the desired specimen by using an object lens of a high magnification ratio. In this event, the magnification ratio of the object lens is low, e.g., 1× at most, making it difficult to find where the desired specimen exists in relation to a specimen retention member such as a well plate and slide glass. Therefore, the observer has been finding out by looking at all over the specimen retention member.
In a transmissive illumination observation for searching for a desired specimen, there are methods available. An image of the entirety of a specimen retention member showing a picture of the specimen is obtained by sticking together images obtained by an object lens of a low magnification ratio and the position of the specimen is identified from the image of the entirety. Or, an image of the entirety of a specimen retention member is obtained by using a macro light path and the position of the specimen is identified from the image of the entirety.
In the fluorescent observation, however, there is much of self fluorescence of the observation optical system such as an object lens and prism, and of the specimen retention member such as a plastic dish. Because of this, it has not been possible to obtain the image of the entirety of the specimen retention member making the position of the specimen within the specimen retention member apparent even if images are stuck together or they are picked up in a macro light path because of the self fluorescence.
Furthermore, various methods for reducing self fluorescence of the observation optical system of a microscope have been proposed; there has not been a consideration of the self fluorescence of a specimen retention member.
Meanwhile, a reference patent document 1 has disclosed a technique equipping a sample holder for a laser microscopic anatomy system with an identification-use code (i.e., a protrusion in a comb form) and a sample holder retention member with a site for recognizing the code, thereby making it possible to identify the sample holder within the laser microscopic anatomy system. The technique aims at automating the process such as assigning cut specimens to individual accommodating containers of a sample holder, thereby carrying out a microscopic anatomy automatically.
Another reference patent document 2 has disclosed a technique constituting a specimen holder comprised by a stage of a microscope by a Petri dish retention unit for retaining a Petri dish and by a slide glass retention unit for retaining a slide glass, enabling a retention of a Petri dish of different sizes by placing a Petri dish retention unit movable in relation to a holder board and retaining the slide glass at a step part equipped in the holder board.
The technique according to the above noted patent document 1, while enabling an automatic operation of the accommodating device based on the code information of the sample holder, is faced with a technical problem of being unable to obtain a whole image with a self fluorescence removed from the sample holder showing a picture of a specimen in a fluorescent observation because the patent document 2 provides no disclosure on a correction of an observation image such as a removal of the self fluorescence of the sample holder.
Likewise, the technique according to the above noted patent document 2, while enabling a retention of various specimen retention members such as a Petri dish and slide glass, does not enable a correction of an observation image, such as a removal of a self fluorescence of the specimen retention member as in the case of the above noted patent document 1. Therefore, the technique is faced with a technical problem of being unable to obtain an image of the entirety with the self fluorescence removed from the specimen retention member showing a picture of a specimen.
Patent document 1: Published Japanese translations of PCT international publication for patent applications 2006-506672
Patent document 2: Laid-Open Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H11-202213